The Assembly approved $ 214.7 million, but the Executive says it has invested $ 450 million.
The Legislative Assembly approved the government of Nayib Bukele an amount of $ 214,703,120 for the program to reduce the digital divide in schools in El Salvador, as part of the Ministry of Education’s 2021 public investment projects, according to official data.
However, President Bukele announced this week that they have invested $ 450 million in the purchase of computers to “bridge the digital divide” for students and faculty, meaning the spending would exceed the Assembly’s allocation by $ 235,296,880.
Faced with this announcement, attorneys and deputies of the General Assembly Finance Committee point out that using more resources than within the allocated budget would violate several laws besides the Constitution.
Article 228 of the Magna Carta states that “no sum may be committed or paid from public funds unless it falls within the constraints of a budget loan” and adds that “funds from future financial years may only be committed with the permission of the law , for works of public or administrative interest, or for the consolidation or conversion of public debt. For such purposes, an extraordinary budget may be voted on. “
Also: Teachers’ unions agree that computers provided by the government should not be given away
But in addition, Article 43 of the Organic Law of State Financial Administration (AFI) prohibits the commitment of resources outside the budget, because in this case it would exceed the approved resources to invest in the education program, which involves more than the purchase of computers.
“Any holder or other official of public sector entities and institutions subject to the rules of this Act is prohibited from performing, on a temporary or recurring basis, for the financial year in progress,” the regulation reads.
The same article states that “the obligations acquired or contracts signed in violation of the rules of this law are void” and adds that “failure to comply with the provisions of this article will be grounds for the removal of the holders or offending officers., without prejudice to criminal and civil liability incurred ”.
The Department of Education has a budget of $ 1,320.4 million for this year, within which $ 235.7 million has been allocated to investment programs and projects, including $ 214.7 million for the Digital Divide Reduction Program.
However, when President Bukele reports that they have invested $ 450 million in purchasing computers for 1.2 million students and more than 50,000 teachers, it would indicate that the Department of Education would have $ 870.4 million available to cover the other commitments. this year, including payment of wages.
Also read: The United Nations confirms the purchase of 46,422 computers with public money, but the delivery should have taken place after elections
Under the Government Procurement and Procurement Act (Lacap), the government must establish an annual procurement schedule, and according to the approved education budget and available on the institution’s website, the $ 450 million investment in computers is not specified as such.
Article 16 of the LACAP states that “all institutions must make their annual programming of the purchase and contracting of goods, construction of works and contracting of non-personal services in accordance with their work plan and their institutional budget, which will be of a public nature. to have”.
What do those who approved the funds say?
Deputy Rodolfo Parker, a member of the Finance Committee, reaffirmed that the amount allowed in the 2021 budget was more than $ 214 million, so the amount above that amount “has no budget support.”
Parker assured that to date the executive branch has not made a request to the Assembly to implement any budget reform and to allocate more resources than those already approved for the purchase of computers. “According to the constitution, no appropriate request has been made because only the legislative assembly can reform the budget.”
The legislator said no one is against buying computers, but pointed out that the government is doing it with a “populist goal” at an electoral moment that is unethically “illegal.”
“They are violating the constitution and it is very serious,” he said, adding that if the executive were to move money between institutions to use more money than approved without the assembly’s consent, they would pass the law. . “You cannot make transfers without first going to the Legislative Assembly and also the law regulating takeovers,” said Parker.
And he noted that funds that are not on a budget line cannot be committed.
Also, Deputy Rodrigo Ávila, of the Finance Committee, pointed out that the point of more than $ 214 million approved to the Ministry of Education is to provide computers to teachers and students, as well as to train them, servers and other infrastructure.
Ávila recalled that the law does not allow them to use state resources without an item supporting those expenditures. “They spread computers like crazy, like beanbags, but it’s a screen and a political show, between improvisation and despair,” the legislator stressed.
But he also pointed out the contradictions that the government has fallen into with the purchase of computers, saying that it is an agreement with the United Nations, but that it is an institutional purchase. To him, they did it at the gates of the election to make an impact by enlightening the people, although they later fail to comply.
Also: Step by step getting connectivity in the computers that the government will supply
The legislature denounces the government’s “corruption” behind the supply of computers, the $ 300 royalty and the purchase of food.
Ávila bases his comments on the fact that Bukele and his officials are not accountable to the population or to the institutions, they contradict themselves, change versions, confuse everything and seek only the ‘propaganda impact’, as happened with the vaccines that, according to the deputy, they were already available and took them out only a week before the election.
“They bypassed controls as they did with food and $ 300, making them guilty of embezzlement and misuse of state resources at the gates of an election process,” he said.